Police arrest 3 APC chairmanship aspirants in Nasarawa

The Police in Doma Local Government Area at the weekend arrested three APC chairmanship aspirants over protests against alleged imposition of the Interim Management Committee Chairman of the council, Rabo Sani, as consensus candidate of the party ahead of the local council polls in the state.

The three aspirants were reportedly arrested for organising a protest in Doma. However, they were later released.

The aspirants are Ahmadu Danjuma Ogah, Onguru Ari and Rilwanu Idris Amama. Three other persons were also reportedly arrested and detained at the Central Police Station in Doma allegedly on the oeders of the embattled chairman. They were also reportedly released on Saturday.

Speaking to Daily Trust shortly after their release, Ahmadu Danjuma Ogah insisted that they stood by their position that primary election must be held so that the most popular aspirant would emerge.

“We are not in military era and we are law abiding citizens; what we are only demanding is for the party to conduct a free and fair election. Whoever wins the election; we will support him,” he said.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in Nasarawa State, DSP Idrisu Kennedy, said the DPO in charge of Doma did not brief the command about the arrest or detention of any aspirant.

However, Kennedy confirmed that the command received reports of series of protests in some venues of the primaries based on the updates it had on the ongoing APC primaries in the 13 local government areas of the state.

All effort to speak with the state APC Chairman, Philip Shekwo, proved abortive as he did not pick several calls and declined to reply a text massage.